Movies on a rainy day
July 20, 2007
Smallwood
Yesterday it rained all day and this small cabin can get very small after a few hours of playing airport in the living room. So I packed up HH and we went into town for a movie. Finding a film suitable for a three-year-old is never easy and in this part of the Catskills we would have to drive for nearly an hour to find a multi-plex and even then the majority of the films would be out of reach for HH, who has a strong dislike for bad guys of every shade.
Luckily for us there is a small independent theatre in the next town, with three screens and a pretty good selection. “Ratatouille” was playing, a story of an aspiring chef who happens to be a rat. We arrived early, found a good seat in the center of the room, bought a huge bag of popcorn and settled in. For the first few minutes HH kept spinning around in his seat to point out to me the light that was coming from the small room in the back of the theatre. We had read a story about such a room, a “Curious George” story, where the ever-inquisitive monkey creates mayhem in the projection booth then calms the audience by making finger puppets in front of the projector lamp while the projectionist re-threads the film.
The movie began and HH eventually crawled up into my lap and whispered every now and then that he wanted to go home, but I persuaded him to stick it out and he seemed to enjoy himself. I expect that I get more out of these outings than he does. I don’t remember my first time in a movie theatre, whatever I saw wasn’t memorable. The first film I actually remember seeing was “Midnight Cowboy” when I was 18 and on a first date with a daring red-head. HH may not remember yesterday’s film either, or any of the ones that follow for the next few years. When does memory start to catalogue things for distant recall?
For me the thrill of going to the movies with HH is in answering his many questions; “Why is it dark in here Papa?”, “Is there a man in that room back there?” Yesterday I explained to him that when I was a little boy this was the way people saw movies, that we didn’t have computers or DVD’s and so we went out and sat in the dark in a room filled with strangers, ate popcorn and saw a movie. Movie theatres, like the one we visited yesterday, are disappearing from the landscape, but the experience of sitting in the dark with strangers, laughing out loud or secretly wiping away a tear, are still possible. I hope he remembers a little bit of yesterday, I know I will.
Smallwood
Yesterday it rained all day and this small cabin can get very small after a few hours of playing airport in the living room. So I packed up HH and we went into town for a movie. Finding a film suitable for a three-year-old is never easy and in this part of the Catskills we would have to drive for nearly an hour to find a multi-plex and even then the majority of the films would be out of reach for HH, who has a strong dislike for bad guys of every shade.
Luckily for us there is a small independent theatre in the next town, with three screens and a pretty good selection. “Ratatouille” was playing, a story of an aspiring chef who happens to be a rat. We arrived early, found a good seat in the center of the room, bought a huge bag of popcorn and settled in. For the first few minutes HH kept spinning around in his seat to point out to me the light that was coming from the small room in the back of the theatre. We had read a story about such a room, a “Curious George” story, where the ever-inquisitive monkey creates mayhem in the projection booth then calms the audience by making finger puppets in front of the projector lamp while the projectionist re-threads the film.
The movie began and HH eventually crawled up into my lap and whispered every now and then that he wanted to go home, but I persuaded him to stick it out and he seemed to enjoy himself. I expect that I get more out of these outings than he does. I don’t remember my first time in a movie theatre, whatever I saw wasn’t memorable. The first film I actually remember seeing was “Midnight Cowboy” when I was 18 and on a first date with a daring red-head. HH may not remember yesterday’s film either, or any of the ones that follow for the next few years. When does memory start to catalogue things for distant recall?
For me the thrill of going to the movies with HH is in answering his many questions; “Why is it dark in here Papa?”, “Is there a man in that room back there?” Yesterday I explained to him that when I was a little boy this was the way people saw movies, that we didn’t have computers or DVD’s and so we went out and sat in the dark in a room filled with strangers, ate popcorn and saw a movie. Movie theatres, like the one we visited yesterday, are disappearing from the landscape, but the experience of sitting in the dark with strangers, laughing out loud or secretly wiping away a tear, are still possible. I hope he remembers a little bit of yesterday, I know I will.
posted by Berlinbound at 2:33 PM
2 Comments:
He's young--he will grow to love going to the movies,because he'll be with dad.
Midnight Cowboy-- what great photography in that movie-- a great shot fading into the next.
I vividly remember a childhood of wonderful and scary movies--because my oldest sister took me constantly.
When she was in Jr. High and we sat through 3 showings of Breakfast at Tiffany's two Saturdays in a row.
I remember her coming home from seeing Midnight Cowboy. She loved Dustin Hoffman and started telling me the plot-- she said --"It was rated X !!!" I had to wait years to see it.
Callicoon has an old restored theatre that shows a good mix of films-- one at a time. The people who run it are very nice.
Ps --The only bit of Breakfast at Tiffany's I "got" were the Mickey Rooney scenes-- I was so young.
I'm sure I slept a lot at the movies too. as a toddler
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